ANGER SOLVES LITTLE

I posted to our facebook yesterday and I would like to continue the conversation basically because I felt the need. As my daughter explained that they watched the streets of Baltimore burn, she grasped for straws to truly understand what the fuss was about. It occurred to me that as a parent, a marvelous job had been done at shielding and protecting her from how ugly the world can truly be. We talked extensively about the situation in Baltimore and how years of oppression and abuse can cause people to boil over. Now this isn’t at all an attempt to pardon the damages done. Or think that it was okay to tear up local shops. The main point that we both came to was that anger sparked the riots. There may have been some opportunist looking to get a free TV, but the incident in large can be attributed to the lack relationship between the police force and the community it was hired to protect.
As I explained that truthfully many African American adults would gladly share one or more stories of when we had a “run-in” with the police. I personally cannot think of one person African American male that hasn’t had a “run-in” with the police, but I digress. As I explained my memories I felt myself feeling the same feelings of anger, shame, and injustice that ended with a group of cops spitting on my car while telling me to have a “nice” night.
But even then I was calmed by the Holy Spirit and able to remind my daughter that in anger we have lost more than we could ever gain. Loosing our cool is what has caused us to say things that we can’t take back. Destroy relationships that we can’t recover. Was it not anger that caused Moses his ability to punch his ticket and enter the Promised Land he worked so hard to get to?  It goes to show us family…..We can work so hard to make progress and burn it all down in a matter of minutes. The bible tells us that we can be angry….But don’t act in anger. Instead use the additional energy to fuel positive change and give God the glory when that change happens!